Not So Different
by Greg'sgirl5
Summary: "No passion, so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear"- Edmund Burke. Greg and Catherine find themselves in a familiar dangerous situation. How do they cope?


_Disclaimer: I own nothing. Believe me, if I did, this would already be on tv :P_

**Not So Different.**

Greg walked down the hall of LVPD with his supervisor and friend Catherine Willows. He spent so much time here it had become like a second home. First being the Crime Lab of course. He knew every hallway, every room, where the furniture was and what plants were on the tables. It wasn't that he particularly noticed these things, but when you spent so much time in one place, you couldn't help but notice.

The two walked in unison after just breaking a major case. The man had been keeping his mouth shut and Catherine had started threatening, but to no avail. The man had been an obsessive killer, so Greg knew exactly how to get the information out of him. You see, his last victim had survived. But he had no idea. He had left her for dead in the desert. They had told him that she had died. And he laughed. He laughed and fessed up. The look on his face when Greg came in and told him she was alive... priceless.

It wasn't often that two graveyard shift CSIs caught a major criminal within 24 hours. So yeah. You could say they were proud.

Greg slowed his steps as they walked passed the waiting room.

"No! Let me see her now!" An older man yelled with impressive volume at a rookie officer that Greg had seen regularily.

"Sir, we cant let you see her at this point." The rookie replied, trying to keep a calm tone.

Catherine exchanged a glance with him and they both smirked. This happened all the time.

"You have to let me see her! She's my daughter!" He yelled again, his complexion reddening by the minute. He had a lot of anger.

"Sir, you have to wait like everyone else." The cop raised his voice this time, sending a message.

By now, both Greg and Catherine had stopped outside the room, subconsciously edging towards the glass windowed area.

"Everyone else? They don't have a daughter who's being mistreated. Your going to pay for this!" The balding man hollered.

Nobody noticed him reach into his pocket. They were too busy listening to his harsh words. Nobody noticed the small box he pulled out. They were too busy watching the rookie cop struggle to maintain order.

It was Brass that noticed first. He drew his gun within seconds, yelling code to the officers in the room. Greg could barely register the numbers he said. But he knew damn well what that little black box was.

A detonator.

His hand flew to his belt, whipping his gun out of his holster at the same lightening fast speed as Catherine.

The panic surged up and down his body, cursing through his veins. Not another bomb. He couldn't handle this. He couldn't take all the explosions, the guns, the rapes and murders. It was too much. Way too much.

His hands began shake, feeling numb, and cold. His whole body felt cold.

Somewhere in his mind he heard Catherine tell him to stay behind her. But he felt the urge to be in front of his boss. Yes she was his boss. But she had been protecting him since his lab rat days. And yet he did as she asked, despite the sickening feeling in his stomach.

"Stay behind me." She told him, making eye contact quickly. There was a fierceness in her blue eyes that he had only seen on rare occasions. When her makeshift family was in danger.

The man hadn't said a word since every gun in the building had been turned on him. But the silence was soon broken by Brass.

"Buddy. Put it down. We'll let you see Maggie. I promise. Just put it down." He said from behind the desk he was crouched beside.

The man turned to look at him with a look of disbelief on his face.

"No you wont. You'll handcuff me and ship me off to some jail for the mentally insane. This is your fault. She did nothing wrong! But its over now. Its over!" He yelled once again, the deep volume of his voice raising with every syllable.

"Oh, hell no." Catherine muttered angrily as the man raised the box in the air.

Greg shook his head, wishing the man to rethink this. But it was too late. Greg exchanged one scared look with Catherine before the ear shattering boom filled the air.

XXX

Catherine stared into his eyes, seeing pure fear, as the loud explosion echoed through LVPD.

The force of the fiery blast sent them flying backwards, both hitting the tile floor hard. Catherine fell on top of Greg, trying to shield them both from the flying glass and shrapnel.

As the chaotic sounds dissipated, a heavy smoke filled the air. Catherine felt as if her ear drums might bleed. Everything felt muted, the alarms going off, the voices yelling. It was all muted.

But also, she felt muted. It was as if she had travelled back in time, to the lab explosion. The lab explosion that had been her fault, that had almost cost Greg his life. She felt sick just thinking about it.

Gently, she lifted her head from Greg's shoulder, looking him in the eyes. They were staring at the mass of destruction around them. Shattered glass blanketed the floor, burned fabric scattered amongst it.

It was then that she saw his hands. They were shaking. With a passion. _Not again. _Hadn't he been through enough already?

She put her hands on top of his, only to realize that hers too, were shivering slightly.

"Greg." She said loudly, trying to get his attention. When she got no response she tried again. "Greg!"

She put one hand on his chest, and he finally looked at her.

"Are you okay?" Catherine asked him, her motherly instincts taking over.

He nodded back, but it was an automatic response.

"Are you?" He asked in an oddly juvenile voice. It was a voice that matched a certain crazy haired lab rat. Not the Greg sitting beside her.

She nodded and mouthed a yes, but got a disapproving expression. She followed the younger mans gaze to her arm, that she now realized was bleeding from a blade of glass wedged into her delicate skin.

She flinched as she flexed the muscle, trying to see how deep it was.

All of a sudden Greg helped her slide off her jacket and apply pressure to her freckled arm. She smiled tentatively at him. She wasn't sure why, maybe reflex, maybe her initial response to the aftermath of the event. But he nodded, a faint hint of a smile on his lips, but it never formed. His eyes still looked glazed over.

Out of the smoke, they saw Brass jog with a small limp towards them.

"Okay?" He asked. Gesturing to them both. They simply nodded, too shocked to say anything else.

He muttered something before jogging back the other way, his over protectiveness showing through.

XXX

(3 hours later)

Greg sat in the break room of the Crime Lab, feeling the stares of lab workers and early swing shift CSIs on his back. They stares never stopped.

He looked down at his hands that were once again shaking. It seemed like yesterday that Grissom had been expressing his concerns about the young eccentric lab geek. But Greg was a different person now.

Just like before, he squeezed his hands into tight fists, feeling the emotion run over him.

It was then that he heard a sigh from behind him. He spun around in his chair to see Catherine standing behind him, her arm freshly bandaged.

"Hey." He said with some unintentional harshness.

"Your okay?" She asked him quietly, as she eased herself into a chair. Greg knew why, he was sore all over too.

"Yeah." He didn't know what else to say. She looked reserved. Like she didn't quite know how to act or react.

She nodded and stared at him. Quickly, she stood up and pulled him into a light hug, her emotions from early today, flooding out of her. He let his do the same as he hugged her back, welcoming the contact.

When he pulled back she looked as if she was trying to find something to say.

"Sara and Ray will be here to take our statements soon. Procedure." She clarified,as she tucked an errant strand of her thin hair back into place behind her ear.

He looked down at his hands that were still shaking. He wasn't sure if he was ready to talk to people yet. His mind was still trying to grasp what had happened.

Greg noticed Catherine staring at his hands.

"Open them and close them." She said, surprising him as she pointed to his hands. "It'll relax the muscles." The way she said it... it was as if she knew it would work. From experience.

He nodded and did as she said, feeling a little more blood flow to his hands.

Just then he noticed Sara in the doorway.

"Greg...You can come talk to me." She said softly.

He couldn't help but be happy that he was talking to Sara rather than Ray. She was his best friend. Their bond went beyond anything he could describe and despite the fact that he wanted to be alone right now, he knew that nobody would understand better than her.

As he walked out of the room, Greg glanced back at Catherine, who was leaning against the counter. He looked down at her hands and didn't feel quite so alone. Because ever so slightly, hers were shaking too.

**Soooooo? Did you like it? I love Greg so I thought this would be cute :P Review!**


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